French Connection in Criminology, The

This is the first comprehensive, accessible, and integrative overview of postmodernism’s contribution to law, criminology, and social justice. The book begins by reviewing the major contributions of eleven prominent figures responsible for the development of French postmodern social theory. This “first” wave includes Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Hélène Cixous, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Félix Guattari, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, and Jean-François Lyotard. Their respective insights are then linked to “second” wave scholars who have appropriated their conceptualizations and applied them to pressing issues in law, crime, and social justice research. Compelling and concrete examples are provided for how affirmative and integrative postmodern inquiry can function meaningfully in the world of criminal justice. Topics explored include confinement law and prison resistance; critical race theory and a jurisprudence of color; media/literary studies and feminism; restorative justice and victim-offender mediation processes; and the emergence of social movements, including innocence projects and intentional communities.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Introduction

Post-Enlightenment thought in the social sciences brought with it a set of
core assumptions that too often have remained unexamined. Modernist
thought has both advanced and placed limitations on critical inquiry. In its
most celebrated form, modernism has contributed profoundly to fundamental
insights about the human condition and to potential emancipatory practices.
However, the emerging postmodern society has demanded alternative theoretical...

CHAPTER 1. Establishing the First Wave: The Linguistic Turn in Social Theory

In this chapter, we succinctly describe the contributions of several prominent
first wave thinkers whose work has contributed substantially to our understanding
of postmodern thought.1 These authors include Roland Barthes,
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Jean-
François Lyotard. We note that while each of these luminaries has passed
away, they individually and collectively helped to establish the first wave’s...

CHAPTER 2. Sustaining the First Wave: More on the Liniguistic Turn in Social Theory

In this chapter, we extend our analysis of postmodern social theory, highlighting
the contributions of those first-wave thinkers who have sustained this
intellectual and practical movement’s agenda, endorsing wholesale political
and social change. The authors reviewed in this chapter include Jean
Baudrillard, Hèléne Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Luce Irigaray, and Julia
Kristeva.What distinguishes these thinkers from those canvassed in the previous...

CHAPTER 3. The Second Wave: Interpreting the Past, Building the Present, and Looking Toward the Future

In this chapter, we draw attention to how postmodern lines of inquiry can be
interpreted. While we recognize that several skeptical versions of the perspective
have received considerable attention in the literature, we suggest how
affirmative renderings of postmodernism are not only possible but are already
in operation. Indeed, on this latter point, we specifically identify the contributions...

In this chapter, we examine two facets of critical penology: capital punishment
in relation to persons identified as competent but mentally ill; and various
approaches, interpretations, and strategies for promoting prison resistance. In
the first section, the precedent case law giving rise to death row executions for
psychiatrically disordered convicts is summarily reviewed.We follow with an
assessment as to how an affirmative and integrative postmodern reading of...

Critical race theory finds itself in an uneasy alliance with both law and postmodern
analysis.1 Many CRT proponents argue that they do not have the
luxury to remain in theoretical, abstract discussions or in more esoteric discourse,
especially since the reality of repressive practices in law are ubiquitous
and are a daily occurrence.2 Thus, their analysis privileges pragmatism. As
Mari Matsuda (1996, 6, 24, 48) asserts, “legalism is a tool of necessity . . . our...

French postmodernist thought has contributed substantially to cultural
studies and media analysis, and, in particular, to cinema studies. The Lacanian
cinema model was developed in the 1970s to early 1980s in the work of C.
Metz (1981) and Kaja Silverman (1983). At about the same time, the
Birmingham cultural studies group actively engaged Louis Althusser’s (1971)...

The issued posed in this chapter is whether restorative justice1 and victim
offender mediation2 (VOM) can be developed as a form of transformative
praxis.3 Alternatively stated, we explore whether VOM, as a dialogical
exchange that currently functions as a procedural arm of the restorative justice
movement, can meaningfully work to facilitate social justice (Schehr 2000b)....

CHAPTER 8. Social Movements as Nonlinearity: On Innocence Projects and Intentional Communities

In this chapter, we apply affirmative and integrative postmodern inquiry to
the study of social movements. In particular, we examine the phenomena of
innocence projects and intentional communities. We note that our analysis
here is speculative and provisional. Our intent is merely to document how
other facets of social life, impacted by criminological and legal thought, could...

CONCLUSION. Back to the Future:Rediscovering Crime, Law, and Social Change

In this concluding chapter, we reflect on four important themes underpinning
our collective call to write this book. First, we return to the first-wave postmodern
luminaries and their significance for charting several new directions
in the development of social theory and its application to various facets of
institutional and civic life. Second, we reassess what this book endeavored to...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.